The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Wednesday January 23 2008

The article below, on the issues raised by a Channel 4 documentary on London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, incorrectly stated that the London Evening Standard had organised a public debate with the Tory candidate, Boris Johnson, but had not invited the mayor or the Lib Dem candidate, Brian Paddick. In fact the Standard has organised a series of debates and next month's will be addressed by Mr Livingstone, followed by a later event with all the candidates present.

The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, failed last night in an attempt to get Channel 4 to pull a documentary which accused him of financial profligacy, cronyism and links to a Trotskyite faction conspiring to transform London into a "socialist city state".

Last night's Dispatches programme, presented by Martin Bright of the New Statesman, also alleged that public money was used to smear one of Livingstone's adversaries and that mayoral staff raised funds for his re-election bid in breach of local government rules.

But the mayor accused the channel of facilitating a smear campaign aimed at sabotaging his chances of re-election.

Hours before the broadcast he approached Channel 4 and attempted to have the programme pulled, claiming lack of balance. He is today expected to renew his protests with a complaint to the regulator, Ofcom. He claimed that Dispatches had already been "totally discredited" in the wake of two controversial documentaries on Aids and climate change.

"It has been pointed out to Channel 4 in the clearest possible terms that the allegations against Ken Livingstone, in the hatchet job on him by journalist Martin Bright for Dispatches, are equally ludicrous," a spokesman said.

However, the broadcaster said he had been offered "a full right to reply in good time" and had declined to respond to the programme's allegations.

"It would appear Mr Livingstone's spokesperson is trying to discredit Dispatches rather than address the issues put to the mayor. Dispatches has a very strong track record and is respected for the quality of its journalism."

In the programme Atma Singh, the mayor's former senior adviser on Asian issues - whom the Livingstone campaign described as an "embittered ex-employee" - said many of the mayor's senior advisers had belonged to a Trotskyite faction called Socialist Action. It planned to use revolutionary politics and access to the Labour party establishment to turn the capital into a "socialist city state".

The programme also alleged that Livingstone's race adviser, Lee Jasper, had paid a consultant to prepare a dossier to help smear the former head of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips. According to the documentary, the consultant was hired at the taxpayer's expense and her appointment signed off by the mayor himself.

The Court of Ken, which examines Livingstone's eight years in power, also looks at Livingstone's relationship with the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, the effectiveness of the congestion charge, and expenses incurred on a trip to India.

The row intensified yesterday after Martin Bright wrote a piece in the Evening Standard - the London paper that has often criticised the mayor - calling Livingstone "a disgrace to his office". He added: "I feel it is my duty to warn the London electorate that a vote for Livingstone is a vote for a bully and a coward who is not worthy to lead this great city of ours." The article called on voters to "kick Ken out when they go to the polls in May".

"Given these unambiguous statements by Mr Bright, any claim that this programme is merely investigative journalism is untrue," Livingstone wrote to the broadcaster yesterday. "It is clear that he is seeking to influence the electoral process." He said he would have no objection to the documentary if films "campaigning against" his fellow mayoral candidates Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick were also made. He offered to participate in an interview with Bright if Channel 4 decided not to broadcast the programme. "This would allow a balanced programme with both sides of the argument shown."

But Channel 4 says it has a legitimate case for focusing on the mayoralty "which holds a unique and powerful position in British politics" and the incumbent. "It is legitimate to hold up to public scrutiny the way in which the office operates as a crucial example of the mayoral model in action, ahead of the next elections," a spokesman said. "Dispatches applies the same level of scrutiny to the office of mayor as it has to other figures in public office, in a fair and balanced investigation, subject to the rigorous editorial guidelines applied to all Dispatches films."

It also pointed out that the controversial film referred to about Aids was first broadcast in 1987 and that The Great Global Warming Swindle was not a Dispatches film, but "a standalone 90 minute programme clearly labelled as a polemic".

The four big issues:

The Evening Standard

The mayor has seen the London daily as his tormentor-in-chief since Veronica Wadley, the former deputy editor of the Daily Mail, replaced Max Hastings in the editor's chair.

Livingstone has long smarted at the way he was treated by the Mail during his time as leader of the Greater London Council, although he claims his dislike of the paper stems from its parent company's support for fascism and Nazism in the 1930s. On Wadley's appointment in 2002 Livingstone invited her to lunch and received no reply, an act which heightened his distrust of Wadley and her paper. Their relationship began badly and over time has worsened.

In 2002 the Standard reported that Livingstone had been involved in a scuffle at a party - during which a man fell down a stairwell - and had manhandled his pregnant partner out of the celebration after accusing her of smoking. However, he denied the allegations and was cleared of bringing his office into disrepute by the local government watchdog a year later.

His next public run-in with the paper came in February 2005 when he likened its Jewish reporter Oliver Finegold (pictured above) to a Nazi concentration camp guard. He also told Finegold that the Standard was "a load of scumbags and reactionary bigots" with "a record of supporting fascism".

Livingstone refused to apologise for his remarks at the time, and was suspended for four weeks. However, the suspension was later quashed by a high court judge. He later apologised for causing any offence to the capital's Jewish community, saying: "I am an equal opportunities rude person."

Wadley insists she has a "healthy" relationship with the mayor. In an interview with the Guardian in 2006 she said: "I've not invited Ken to a dinner party at my house. He's a great character and he's a very clever politician. It doesn't mean he's always right."

The paper has published a string of hostile articles on Livingstone and his inner circle alongside reports helpful to the Conservative candidate for London mayor, Boris Johnson. An aggrieved Livingstone has dubbed the paper the London Evening Boris. Last night the Standard held a public debate entitled What Does London Need From The Next Mayor? Speakers included Johnson, but not Livingstone or the Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick.

Lee Jasper

The mayor's adviser on race relations found himself dragged into the spotlight again last year after the Evening Standard published a series of articles alleging that 12 organisations run by his friends and associates had been given grants worth more than £2m because of their links with him. According to reporter Andrew Gilligan, some of the deals involved fraud, while others failed to yield any tangible public benefit. An internal review by the London Development Agency, which provided the grants, cleared Jasper of improperly influencing their allocation this month.

The review said it had investigated the allegation that "contracts and funding were awarded to organisations because of their personal friendships with the mayor's adviser Lee Jasper or because of inappropriate interference by Mr Jasper. The review has found that this was not true." Among the groups investigated were the South London Green Badge Taxi School and the African Caribbean Business Network. The taxi school, which was established by two of Jasper's associates to teach ethnic minority applicants "the knowledge", is now the subject of a police fraud inquiry. In the case of the business network - which received a £1m grant - the review found "substantive assurance regarding the project management and outcomes of this project".

Livingstone stood by his adviser as allegations of cronyism were thrown around, and many of Jasper's supporters have pointed to his record of work on behalf of minorities - especially his role as chair of the lay advisory group on Operation Trident, the Metropolitan police unit which investigates gun crime in the black community. They say the criticisms are in fact an attack on the black voluntary sector. But his accusers say the issue is about procedures and the stewardship of public money.

The LDA's review found that 12 of the 16 allegations made by the Standard were unfounded. But the agency said it had referred allegations that individuals had misappropriated funds to the police as it had no powers to formally interview and investigate external parties.

On January 16 the London assembly agreed an urgent motion to refer the LDA to the district auditor for an independent audit. The assembly also agreed to summon representatives from both the LDA and the Greater London authority to appear before assembly members to answer further questions.

The inner circle

Last weekend the mayor was criticised in reports in Sunday newspapers for surrounding himself with a clique of advisers, many of whom belonged to a Trotskyite splinter group. This claim first surfaced in the 1990s, but was revived in the Dispatches programme.

The reports described how his chief-of-staff, Simon Fletcher, began his career working for Tony Benn and won a seat on Camden council in 1993 before becoming involved in Socialist Action. The faction, which sprang from a split in the International Marxist Group, aimed to reconcile its revolutionary programme with cooperation with the Labour party. Its critics claim Socialist Action decided to extend its influence by placing its members in positions of power in a number of organisations.

Since meeting in 1992 Livingstone and Fletcher have forged a lasting partnership. Having worked as Livingstone's researcher and masterminded his boss's first successful mayoral bid in 2000, Fletcher is closer to him than most. Livingstone also trusts Fletcher enough to leave him to run things when he leaves the country - a duty that many feel should fall to the mayor's second-in-command, deputy mayor Nicky Gavron.

In the early 90s John Ross, who is Livingstone's economic adviser, was another key figure in Socialist Action.

While a parliamentary candidate for the Communist party in the 1974 general election he expressed the view that union members should be entitled to form militia units: "This is the only peaceful road to socialism," he said. "The ruling class must know that they will be killed if they do not allow a takeover by the workers. If we aren't armed there will be a bloodbath." After a spell as an financial guru in Russia, Ross returned to the UK to help Livingstone prepare his economic strategy for the mayoral contest.

The third member of the triumvirate is Livingstone's deputy chief of staff, Redmond O'Neill, who was also a pivotal figure in Socialist Action. O'Neill holds the crucially important transport brief in the mayor's office but is also seen as Livingstone's main fixer on a range of thorny issues.

Atma Singh, a former member of Socialist Action who advised the mayor on Asian issues, told Dispatches that the Trotskyite faction still had the mayor's ear. Singh also identified Mark Watts, the mayor's climate change adviser, Jude Woodward, his culture adviser, and Anne Kane, who has done consultancy work for Livingstone, as one-time members of Socialist Action. Singh, who left Livingstone's team in acrimonious circumstances and received a pay-off, told the Observer that although his salary was paid for by the taxpayer he and other advisers raised money for Livingstone's successful 2004 re-election bid in breach of local government rules. Livingstone has denied any wrongdoing.

Trevor Phillips

The two were on good terms until 1999, when both were running for London mayor. However, when Phillips's bid appeared to come apart, Livingstone offered the former television journalist a role as his deputy. Phillips turned him down, apparently feeling he was being patronised. Things worsened when Phillips, in his capacity as chair of the Greater London authority, decided to publicly quiz the mayor on what had happened at the party in 2002.

By 2006 there was so much bad blood between the two that Livingstone accused Phillips, then chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, of "pandering to the right" to such an extent that "soon he'll be joining the BNP". The mayor later refused to take part in a CRE conference, while his race adviser, Jasper, urged other speakers to pull out of the event. Livingstone said Phillips was harming community relations and employing inflammatory language "to grab alarmist headlines".

According to Dispatches, Jasper waded deeper into the feud in June 2006. The programme suggests that he commissioned Anne Kane to draft an article rubbishing Phillips's record as chair of the CRE to stop him being appointed head of the organisation that replaced it, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights. Dispatches claims Kane's fee for the work - some of which was published on Blink, a black website with links to Jasper - was paid by the taxpayer, and that her appointment was signed off by Livingstone. City Hall says the allegations stem from an embittered ex-employee.

A spokesperson for the mayor said: "The allegations regarding Anne Kane are not new but were already looked into by the GLA's chief executive [Anthony Mayer], who is appointed by the London assembly and not the mayor, last year and found to be unfounded. The conclusion regarding Anne Kane from the GLA's director of corporate services stated: 'The correspondence alleges that GLA resources have been used to "prosecute a campaign against Trevor Phillips". From the papers and Anthony's existing knowledge of the agenda, supplemented by clarification of Anne Kane's contract, he does not consider that there is a case to answer ...'

"The government carried out a consultation on their government equalities review and the mayor naturally took part in this ... the mayor, unlike Mr Phillips, did not agree with the abolition of the CRE. It is entirely legitimate and normal for the mayor to express his views on such matters of public policy. Such an exchange of views on policies of importance to London does not constitute a personal campaign."